Looking beyond the Castle Walls: The Weobley Castle Project

In the early 16th century Weobley was described as a market town in Herefordshire, where is a goodly castell, but somewhat in decay. Less than a century later, and based on a plan made by Silas Taylor, all that remained of the castle were a few walls, a series of robbed construction trenches and, maybe two substantial timber framed buildings referred to by Taylor as dwellings anciently. As time passed, the history of the castle was lost, albeit temporarily. Between 2001 and 2004, a project to uncover many unsolved questions concerning the origins, use and demise of the castle was undertaken by a multi-disciplinary team led by the editors of this volume. The project, funded by the Local Heritage Initiative and supported by volunteers, undertook a series of non-intrusive investigations as well as detailed studies into the history and development of this once medieval town. Following the results of the surveys, strategic trenching was located in various locations in and around the castle. From this excavation was found an array of objects such as medieval pottery, coinage and metalwork along with significant structures including the foundations of a number of medieval buildings. Looking beyond the Castle Walls provides a detailed account of the methodology of each of the survey and excavation programmes that assisted in the unravelling some of the answers to this most complex of histories.